Groundbreaking research has revealed unprecedented results in the fight to cure cancer. Patients with advanced types of blood cancers who were given months to live and little hope for remission were gathered for a clinical trial to undergo “T-cell therapy”.

To administer it, doctors take immune cells from patients and alter them with “receptor molecules” that are designed to target specific forms of cancer. After this process the cells are infused back into the patients – then doctors wait for signs of improvement.

The most promising set of results involved over three dozen patients with Acute Lymphoid Leukemia (ALL), with over 94% of them in complete remission after T-Cell therapy was administered. The studies also included greater than 50% remission rates for lymphoma patients and a significant reduction of cancer symptoms in over 80% of patients with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

The researchers caution that clinical trials are still young so it’s too soon to know whether cancer symptoms will return in the future. T-Cell Therapy won’t be an end-all for every cancer, but with remarkable rates of remission it’s certainly a promising start for various blood cancers. To read more detail on this research and what the results mean for the future, click here to visit WebMD’s detailed article.

Every year Gilda’s Club in South Jersey puts together fundraising events to benefit those affected by cancer in the local area. The main idea is to provide psychological, financial, and educational resources/support for people who have been diagnosed with cancer. These services help not only patients but also their families and loved ones face cancer together. Because of Gilda’s Club, cancer patients who are members in the area have the option to attend things like exercise classes, movie nights, and lectures on staying healthy— all free of charge.

To raise money for the activities that benefit these cancer patients, Gilda’s Club hosts four “Sip, Savor, Support” events annually. These events are fully funded by local businesses so that any donations as well as ticket proceeds are strictly used for the patients’ benefit.

Before the holidays, The Knife & Fork in Atlantic City opened up for brunch to allow Gilda’s Club to host one of their ‘Sip, Savor, Support’ fundraisers. This gave Gilda’s Club a unique opportunity to attract donors since The Knife & Fork is never open to the public for brunch. Although there is generally no cap on the amount of people allowed to attend a Gilda’s Club ‘Sip, Savor, Support’ event, this particular brunch was capped at 200 RSVP’s to encourage bigger donors.

Weiss & Paarz decided to join other local businesses in sponsoring this wonderful fundraiser. Thanks to the hard work of Gilda’s Club over $100,000 was raised for local cancer patients and their loved ones in 2015. To make a donation or learn more about Gilda’s Club South Jersey, visit their website at www.gildasclubsouthjersey.org.

Since breast cancer is among the most common forms of cancer in women, any progress in slowing down its dangerous tendency to spread could be revolutionary. Recent research published in the scientific journal Nature reveals a specific type of protein that seems to help breast cancer cells spread to the bone. These findings could help to slow the spread of breast cancer in the future.

Metastasis is the process in which cancer spreads from its original site to other organs and body parts, either through the lymphatics and/or through the passage of blood. The more a cancer spreads, the less likely it will be to properly treat and reverse its effects. Metastasis is generally seen in later stages of cancer and is associated with a lower survival rate and worsened prognosis.

Researchers at the University of Sheffield discovered that a protein known as “lysul oxidase” or “LOX” encourages breast cancer cells to spread to the bone. Once breast cancer or any cancer spreads to the bone, it becomes much more difficult to treat. When the team of researchers introduced the LOX protein to lab rats without tumors, the protein caused bone damage. As a result, it was deduced that drugs which treat bone problems such as osteoporosis may actually prevent breast cancer cells from spreading to the bone.

The team’s future goals are to discern exactly how the LOX protein affects and alters bone cells to encourage metastasis. With the right amount of research, the study’s co-leader believes that they could eventually “stop breast cancer in its tracks”. Read more about these exciting findings on The University of Sheffield’s website here.

According to recent research at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, the rate of young adults in their 20s, 30s, and 40s who are diagnosed with colon cancer is on the rise. Counterintuitively, the rate of adults aged 50 and over with colon cancer has declined. The decline is likely due to an increase in regular cancer screenings which are offered to all adults over 50 per the national standard of care in America. These regular screenings identify potential warning signs for colorectal cancer that if caught early enough, can improve one’s prognosis significantly.

Because regular colon screenings are not offered to adults between the ages of 20 and 49, it is often too late for minimally invasive treatment options once a patient in this population is diagnosed. Offering colon cancer screening tests to younger age groups is not going to prevent the highest risk patients from developing colorectal cancer. However, screening younger age groups could help to identify signs of cancer earlier, allowing for a more optimistic outcome. These findings highlight the importance of extending regular testing to lower age groups, especially those with a genetic predisposition.

In addition to maintaining a healthy lifestyle, it is crucial to ensure that you are offered regular colonoscopies if you are an adult over the age of 50 (and again, if you are at a higher risk with a family history of colorectal cancer, this should be done earlier). If you or a family member was diagnosed with advanced stage colon cancer and you feel it could have been picked up earlier, contact our firm for a free consultation. Visit our topic-specific page on colon cancer here.

A team at the University of Connecticut is in the process of developing a clinically safe and personalized ovarian cancer vaccine. After four years of investigation, the team has succeeded in creating a vaccine that leaves mice resistant to cancer cells. They are now in the process of submitting the vaccine to the FDA for approval so that it can begin moving through clinical trials with the eventual goal of widespread implementation (assuming, of course, that the vaccine is as successful in humans as it has been in lab mice). Dr. Pramod Srivastava, one of the study’s principal investigators, comments, “this has the potential to dramatically change how we treat cancer”.

Typically, when ‘bad’ cells attack our bodies, our immune system fights them off. Our immune system cannot always detect cancerous cells because of their many similarities to normal, healthy cells. A piece of information that our immune system uses to gauge a cell’s danger level is a protein sequence called an epitope. By closely comparing epitopes from healthy mice tissue to epitopes from cancerous mice tissue, the researchers were able to create a vaccine that will help the immune system to recognize the ‘bad’ cancerous cells and get rid of them. To everyone’s benefit, the vaccine the researchers developed as a result of their investigation was successful in creating a resistance to cancer in mice.

The researchers chose to try their vaccine on ovarian cancer because it is generally very responsive to surgery and chemotherapy but carries a greater risk of return within 1-2 years.

As the 5th leading cause of death in American women, ovarian cancer provides an urgent starting point and a “perfect window” for clinical trials—the physicians could know within a few short years whether or not the vaccine works or needs further development.

Although years will pass before the vaccine moves through clinical trials and into regular treatment plans, these findings are very encouraging in our ongoing fight against cancer. Those with family histories of cancer and/or those with abnormal symptoms a doctor considers concerning should be undergoing regular screening tests to rule out warning signs of cancer such as precancerous cells. The earlier that cancer is found, the better one’s prognosis becomes. If you or a loved one has experienced a devastating delay in the diagnosis of cancer, contact our firm for a free consultation. To read more about cancer misdiagnosis, visit our cancer misdiagnosis webpage. To read more about UConn’s exciting announcement on the ovarian cancer vaccine, visit their public release here. To read more about ovarian cancer and US statistics, visit the American Cancer Society’s ovarian cancer page.